Spending What You Would Have Spent If One Thing Became Free

So there is an event coming up that I was thinking of going to and one of the good things is that the event itself is free to attend which saves people money from having to buy tickets. What was kind of interesting was how because it was now free people would often say they will now use that spend money on something they wouldn’t have normally. For example, if the ticket fee was normally $10 then they will now spend $10 playing a game that they normally wouldn’t have for budget reasons.

It’s kind of interesting from a financial perspective in many ways where I know for myself I would stick to my original thought where if I only wanted to attend the event and pay the ticket price then I would treat it the same where instead I would walk out of the event with $10 saved. I know most people would say “live a little” in situations like that. But I personally feel it’s a good habit to have. Otherwise you tend to fall into the same mindset for everything else as well. For example, buying groceries where you got everything you actually needed but then realized you saved a bunch. Because of that you now spend what you were going to spend by getting more things you didn’t need.

Once in a while if it makes sense then it’s fine. But in general I think it is better to treat what you get for free as a way to actually have more money in your pocket by the end of the day.